When Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker woke up on March 13 to the sound of someone breaking into their Kentucky apartment, they had no idea it was the police executing a “no-knock” unannounced search warrant. So, they did exactly what many law-abiding citizens would do: Walker called 911 and grabbed his legally owned firearm to defend his home from unknown intruders. Just a few minutes later, a hailstorm of bullets shot haphazardly would cascade through the apartment (and into neighboring apartments as well) in a
tragic exchange that left Taylor dead, a police officer wounded, and Walker under arrest.
The search warrant police were executing did not actually name Walker nor Taylor. Rather, it was associated with another warrant searching a suspected neighborhood drug den miles away, on the suspicion that the alleged dealer, Taylor’s former boyfriend, might have stored drugs in Walker’s home. According to
NBC News, no drugs were found in the apartment, and neither Taylor nor Walker had criminal records. Simply put, there’s no reason to think either did anything wrong.